


Know Who You Are

by grxciehollis15



Series: Moana [2]
Category: Moana (2016)
Genre: Couple, F/M, Fluff and Smut, I Don't Even Know, I Tried, I Will Go Down With This Ship, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, It Gets Better, Male Masturbation, Masturbating, Moana Isn't That Innocent After All Eh, Plot Line Somewhere, Sailing, Sexual Imagery, Sexual connotations, Slow Burn, Well Not That Slow Of A Burn But Anyway
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-05
Updated: 2017-12-05
Packaged: 2018-10-15 02:59:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10548906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grxciehollis15/pseuds/grxciehollis15
Summary: Moana and Maui have just saved the world (together, Moana is always keen to remind him) and are excited about their forthcoming adventures. But when Moana sets sail, her and Maui realise there's something more between them than just the ocean...Ancient Polynesian calendar for later reference (the date(s) the story takes place on will appear in the title):Lihamu’a: December 21 to January 21Tanumanga: January 21 to Feburary 21Vaimui: Feburary 21 to March 21Fu’ufu’unekinanga: March 21 to April 21Faka afu mate: April 21 to May 21Liha-mui: May 21 to June 21‘Ao’ao: June 21 to July 21Fakaafu-moui : July 21 to August 21Vai mu’a: August 21 to September 23‘Uluenga: September 23 to October 21Hilinga-mea’a: October 21 to November 21Hilinga-kelekele: November 21 to December 21





	1. A Girl Who Loves The Sea - Liha-mui - June 20th

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Precocious](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9083260) by [Owlship](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Owlship/pseuds/Owlship). 



> This story was not only inspired by the work listed, but by all of Owlship's work in the Moana fandom, which I have enjoyed reading and definitely recommend!
> 
> This is also a rewrite and in turn follow on from my other Moana fic called Curly.
> 
> I'll try to post every Wednesday but I can't promise anything, I have my GCSEs coming up!
> 
> Enjoy - Gracie xx

Moana watched until Maui became a tiny dot in the air, then sighed happily. Turning to face the luscious green hills of Te Fiti, she stroked the mast of the new canoe and wandered slowly up the beach to the base of a hill, covered in huge palm trees. She quickly picked a bunch of flowers from a nearby bush and tucked them inside the cubby, turning Heihei the right way up - again - and pushed the boat into the water, feet pushing up thick mounds of fresh, warm sand. The canoe splashed into the warm water, which had trails leading from the shores, as Moana had seen the night she had embarked on her adventure, but green instead of black. 

It took a few minutes of shifting the boat and gently correcting direction before she reckoned they were on track and sat back. She brushed away most of the flowers from the mast and sides of the boat, leaving a few at the tip of the mast for decoration. 

She wasn't happy, she was buzzing. 

She'd done it!

She'd restored the heart of Te Fiti. Maui hadn't; she had. She had. 

She was buzzing. 

She was alive!

After three days on the water she estimated that she would be home in about a week if the weather was good. Quickly tying down a remaining loose rope, Moana swung around the mast and knocked on the lid of Heihei's cub. The bemused chicken popped his head out, eyes rolling, and gave a tired squawk. 

"Hey there drumstick." Moana laughed as she used Maui's pet name for the bird. "You hungry?"

Peeling a smooth, bright banana and slumping down on the deck to eat it, Moana absent-mindedly talked to Heihei between mouthfuls. 

"Do you reckon he knows where we are?" She wondered, inferring Maui before she could help herself. There was a thump and Moana turned quickly to see a dolphin knocking itself against the boat. 

"Maui!" She called in delight. The dolphin jumped, transformed into a beetle mid-leap and flew onto the boat, quickly turning back into Maui. 

Moana pressed her forehead to his and touched the tip of his nose with hers in greeting, than stepped away. 

"In answer to your question, yes, I do know." Maui grinned at her and pulled the boat slightly to the left. "Follow that star: I found an island where you can sleep a bit."

Moana squinted at her outstretched hand and nodded, smiling. "Thanks, Maui."

"So, in the three days since I saved the world - ahem, we, sorry, force of habit - we saved the world, has anything of interest happened?"

"Nope. But I've travelled a fair distance, it should only take me seven more days instead of eight."

Maui nodded and sat back against the mast with his hands behind his head. Moana stayed at the front of the boat, pulling on a rope to keep on course. 

Maui watched her as she swallowed the rest of her banana and set to work on correcting the boat's path. Soon an island loomed in the distance, with a few trees covered in fresh leaves coating the branches and reaching into the sky with new vigour. 

Moana heard Maui take a breath of air and turned slightly. 

"What on Motu Nui are you doing?" She asked, a slight giggle to her voice. 

"Oh, I'm practicing how long I can hold my breath without taking the form of a water-dwelling creature." He answered, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Whatever you feel like, Maui." Moana snorted and shook her head. "Oh look, there's the island!"

Maui stepped towards her and flicked a couple of ropes towards the shore, expertly lassoed a sizeable boulder and guided them to rest on the sand. 

"Fish or firewood?" He asked, splashing her gently with seawater. 

Moana looked at the horizon and considered. "I'll do firewood. Be quick, there's a storm coming."

Maui nodded. "When you're done, get into that cave there. I'll drag the boat in."

Moana picked up Heihei and set him lightly on the sand, then made her way into the nearby forest. By the time she'd collected enough firewood - she even found a few mangoes and a coconut tree - the rain was starting to get heavy. She ran lightly back to the cave and realised Maui had already brought in the canoe. 

"Hey there," Maui said absentmindedly. "Firewood?"

"Yep! And some fruit. Did you find a lot of fish?"

"I found about ten." Maui shrugged. "Lucky you have the fruit!"

Moana lay down some firewood and Maui quickly set light to it. "How do you do that so fast?" She asked, amazed. 

"Are you forgetting, Curly? I was the one who brought fire to mankind."

"I have heard that story a thousand times. Stop right now, unless you want to spend tonight in the rain - without your hook," She added. 

Maui sighed. "It's freezing in here, even with the fire!"

"It'll warm up. Here, I'll teach you some of the dances we do on Motu Nui."

After a few minutes of clumsy steps, Maui tripped over Heihei when he wasn't looking and winded himself on a rock. Moana carried on dancing, showing him how to dance her favourite one, while he sat and watched. 

Finishing with a twirl and raising her hands high in the air, Moana slumped back down next to him, out of breath. 

"They always tire me out. Are you warmer yet?"

"Yeah, enough. You?"

Moana rubbed her hand against her calf. "Enough." She imitated, smirking. 

"I could turn into a furry animal if you'd like." Maui suggested. 

"Nah, I'm fine." Moana reached up and untangled a curl of hair from the rest, tying it back into the bun and leaning back against Maui's shoulder with her hands on her stomach. 

Maui had never been one for hugs and affection but with Moana pressed into his side, he didn't feel irritated or invaded. She fit nicely into the crevices of his muscles and her dark hair was draped over his arm, keeping it blanketed against the cold. 

Maui looked down at the sleeping Moana. Her hair was curled over her cheek and her eyelids fluttered, her mouth curved into a little smile. She looked beautiful, Maui concluded. Even sleeping, the sixteen year old was one of the prettiest girls he'd ever seen. 

He felt a deep emptiness in his lower stomach, but a tightening in his chest.

Was it lust? Or was it love?

He looked down at Mini-Maui. Mini-Moana had shifted and was now sitting on the boat. Mini-Maui sat beside her. As Maui watched, the shuffled in close to each other. Mini-Maui put his arm around her and smiled. 

Maui looked away abruptly, but he could feel them prickling his chest. He twitched lightly and they jumped to his lower back, where he couldn't feel them as much. 

He'd been swimming, flying and generally not in human form since he'd got a new hook, so he hadn't seen the slow progression of the mini-relationship happening on his pectorals. Moana had more defined features, a detailed face and even a necklace complete with tiny beads, unlike before. 

Once again, he shook this off and looked away. 

It took him a while, but eventually he slept. 

Moana woke in the early morning. She wasn't sure where she was, but it took her barely a moment to realise. She almost jumped up and away awkwardly, but she felt the most comfortable she'd been over three weeks.

Moana glanced up at Maui, whose face was slack with sleep. She couldn't help noticing how his arm curved around her, fitting in all the right places. 

She felt an overwhelming urge to stroke a little curl of hair from his forehead, to pick that one grain of sand from his eyebrow. To plant a gentle kiss on the corner of his mouth. 

Was it lust? Or was it love?

Moana thought this and looked around guiltily, and pointlessly. There was no one. It was just her and Maui. Alone. 

He wouldn't want her. He was a demigod. She was a mortal. She would die one day. He might never. He would never. 

Moana felt a tear slide down her cheek and brushed it away irritably.  
"You need to get over this," She muttered angrily. "You need to stop these thoughts."

Then she turned over, facing away from Maui, and slept. 

Maui woke up with his morning erection struggling to be freed from his lavalava and noticed Moana was yawning, half awake. 

"You sleep a little more, Curly. It's not dawn yet and I need to scope out some more islands a little further west."

"Okay." Moana agreed sleepily.

Maui transformed into a hawk with ease and flew from the cave. He already knew where all the west bound islands were so he settled on one just past the horizon that was barely big enough to house one tree and him. 

He pulled his lavalava and loincloth off in one swift motion, allowing his erection to spring free. Taking himself in hand and swiping the precum down, he closed his eyes and tried to picture something that would turn him on. He'd been caught in sex pollen once with the goddess Hi'iaka and he often used that. He didn't find the goddess attractive but she was still good enough. 

As he closed his eyes a name and a face came into his head. Moana. 

His eyes popped open and he abruptly let go of his cock. "Nope." He said to himself. "Get over it."

He closed his eyes again. Moana. 

"You have got to be kidding me."

He tried starting to jerk off with his eyes open and nothing to refer to mentally. But as soon as he had started, Moana popped up once again. 

"What the hell, I'm already going." Maui mumbled. 

Mentally, he slowly traced her face, her hair, down her body into those luscious curves, the swell of her breasts. 

He tried to imagine her naked, firm, small breasts, just inches from the necklace she always wore. He tried to imagine her hips, curved beautifully and as bare as the rest of her. 

Her long legs, spread for him. He traced in between the legs, the soft hair, the moist entrance just waiting for him...

Maui came with a shout at that, thrusting himself up into his hand, eyes squeezed shut with the image. 

It took him a few minutes to recover but eventually he transformed back into a hawk and flew into the horizon. 

"I don't." He told himself firmly. "I don't love Moana. She's just a mortal. And she's the first girl I've seen in more than a thousand years, except Te Fiti. That's why she popped into my head."

Shaking the thought off, Maui yelled a hawk's cry and landed back on the island, Moana waving at him from the entrance to the cave.


	2. I Will Carry You Here In My Heart - Liha-mui to 'Ao'ao - June 21st to June 23rd

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Moana and Maui go their separate ways before accidentally running into one another on another island and realising their affection is something more.
> 
> Ancient Polynesian calendar for later reference (the date(s) the story takes place on will appear in the title):  
> Lihamu’a: December 21 to January 21  
> Tanumanga: January 21 to Feburary 21  
> Vaimui: Feburary 21 to March 21  
> Fu’ufu’unekinanga: March 21 to April 21  
> Faka afu mate: April 21 to May 21  
> Liha-mui: May 21 to June 21  
> ‘Ao’ao: June 21 to July 21  
> Fakaafu-moui : July 21 to August 21  
> Vai mu’a: August 21 to September 23  
> ‘Uluenga: September 23 to October 21  
> Hilinga-mea’a: October 21 to November 21  
> Hilinga-kelekele: November 21 to December 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Here's my next chapter, I hope you guys enjoy! Smut in this chapter, be warned. Where did my innocence go?! Don't forget to leave Kudos and comment if you liked it! This chapter and probably the chapters after will be in present tense as it makes it a lot easier to write!
> 
> Enjoy - Gracie xx

"...Shaking the thought off, Maui yelled a hawk's cry and landed back on the island, Moana waving at him from the entrance to the cave."

"Any good islands nearby?" She asks as he transforms. 

"None substantial enough to live on." He replies, shaking out his hair and gently nudging Heihei away from the water.

Moana rescues the chicken, placing him on the canoe that she'd hauled into the water in preparation. "I'll see you around, Maui." She laughs, pushing it out into the water. "Thanks for finding this island for me."

"No problem." Maui answers. "See you around, Curly." He jumps into the air, swinging his hook, and turns back into a hawk, just as the wind catches Moana's sail. He hovers in the air for a minute, watching her canoe sail into the distance, Moana expertly handling it against the current. 

"I taught her well." He muses as he flies faster than she is sailing in the same direction, until she has disappeared behind him. 

Moana is chatting to Heihei absent mindedly when Maui flies over her. She waves once more, laughing out loud, and then suppresses the joy that rose in her chest. She didn't like him like that, he was like a brother. Moana had always wanted a brother, and for a while Maui was like that for her. 

Not now, she admits to herself. He isn't Maui anymore, he's... Maui. The demigod who had come back for her when she needed it most. The demigod who had sacrificed his hook, done something which hurt him physically, for her. The demigod she was slowly falling for. 

"Love isn't as great as I thought." She groans to Heihei, poking the bird unhappily. Her and her best friend, Aikane, had had crushes on almost every guy their age on their island when they were about fourteen, and Aikane had once admitted to Moana that she'd even had a crush on Ka'ena, a girl a few years older than them who was married now. But this wasn't like that. Moana wanted to know more about Maui, not giggle about and imagine the naughtier bits of what their relationship would entail. 

"I'm sixteen now. I'm old enough to be married, as per Motu Nui chief tradition. But I'll have to marry someone of my island, like Aukai."

Aukai was nice, Moana thinks. He was handsome and tall but not Maui. Her parents always joked that Aukai would be their perfect boy for Moana, as he was the son of one of the fishermen, who adored the water as she did - but unlike Moana, he was free. He could go out on the ocean with his father - not past the reef, but fishing. 

Moana sighs. Heihei looks up and gives a gentle squawk, then takes a step forwards and falls into the cubby. She laughs, pulls at the sail, and looks up at the sky. 

"Next stop, Motu Nui." She says decisively. "It'll be four days, max. I can stay awake for that long!"

\---  
This section focuses more on Maui's point of view!  
\---

"I can't stay awake this long," Moana groans two days later as her hand slips off the rope and she jerks it back quickly. "There'll be an island nearby. It's only one or two more days until I get home. I can last that long, if I can just get some sleep..."

The sun was setting as Moana spies an island on the horizon. "Aha!" She cries, suddenly renewed, " I knew there would be!"

Peering a little closer, she can see what looks like a thin slit of orange light. As she approaches the island the light turns into flame, and the flame illuminates the outline of a hulking figure sat with his back to the sea. 

Maui doesn't realise he had company until he hears a cough. He turns, jumps up and looks around him. A small figure appears from a boat and steps into the light. 

"Moana?" He asks. The figure nods and laughs: "We meet again!"

"Did you get worn out?" Maui smirks. "Have to find an island so you could have a nap like a kid?"

Moana whacks him in the rib with her oar and giggles at his face. "I'm not a kid, demigod. I am Moana of Motu Nui and I am grown up enough to take you on." Argh, that sounded like you were flirting, she thinks to herself. 

Is she flirting? Maui wonders. "Take me on, huh? In what? Girl-ness? Kid-ness? Beauty?" 

Immediately he claps a hand over his mouth. Mini-Maui puts his head in his hands and sighs. 

"I mean, I'd win at that one - look at the muscles -" Maui raises an arm weakly. 

Moana chooses to ignore the slip, even though all of her senses are screaming: He thinks you have beauty! He thinks you have beauty!

"I wouldn't bet on it, demigod." She replies, smirking with one eyebrow raised. 

"Hey!" Maui interjects. "The eyebrow is my thing!"

Moana laughs and presses her forehead to his. Maui - in a move he would later swear was on purpose - accidentally kisses her straight on the mouth. 

They both move instantly, but not away. Her hand goes to his chest, the other to his right arm, while both of his entangle themselves in her hair and cradle the back of her head. Mini-Maui puts his head back in his hands and begins to silently moan in horror. 

It takes them a few seconds before they break apart, realising what they are doing. Moana immediately goes red and hides her face.

"Hey, now, why are you blushing?" Maui asks, flushed himself. 

"Because - because - I didn't stop," She stammers into her hands. "And because I was happy when - when you didn't either."

"I was happy when you didn't." Maui says, trying to be gentle. "Gods, Mo, I really was happy when you didn't."

"I mean - I - do - do you..."

"Moana, I really like you. I think there's something between us that I like. A heat. And you?" Maui pauses, knowing the answer but freaking out a little. He'd been shooting into the dark. But there was no way she didn't feel the same after kissing like that, touching his chest like that, blushing like that. 

"I... I think - think so too." Moana whispers. 

Maui leans in for another kiss. Moana meets him gingerly, not sure what to do, but let's herself be enveloped in his arms, as he leads her away from the fire and lays her carefully down onto a mat on the grass beside him. 

"I - I - I don't know what to - to do." Moana stumbles over her words as Maui strokes the edge of her jaw, tracing up to her ear. 

"We don't have to do it." Maui whispers, knowing that she wants it, feeling her heat for him. 

"I want to do it." Moana insists. "But I don't - ah! - know what to do."

"I'm going to make you orgasm, Moana of Motu Nui." Maui whispers in her ear, pulling her up. "The small hill on this island has an entrance to a cave round the back." At the last three words he pushes his hand against the firm curve of her ass, making her yelp in surprise. "The cave is the perfect size to sleep in. And that's what we're going to do, right after I fuck you all over this island."

Moana whimpers and pushes herself against him. Maui picks her up like a child, her arms around his neck and legs around his hips with one hand cupping her ass and the other on her back. Moana kisses him and Maui can feel the hunger, so tender yet so forceful, that any chance she had of not being sore the next day disappears from his mind. Pushing her down onto the side of the grassy hill, he fights the urge to push himself straight into her. Instead he removes the tapa on her chest and slips her skirt from her as well. Moana instinctively draws her knees up but Maui pulls them down gently and sets them apart. She looks good enough for him to feel the blood pulsing in his cock. He quickly flicks Mini-Maui and Mini-Moana onto his back, where they hold hands and grin widely. 

"What... what are you going to do?" Moana asks nervously. 

"I'm going to make..." - touching her chin - "you..." - touching her jaw - "wet." On the last word he trails his hand down her neck to the swell of her breasts, just as he'd imagined them before. Cupping one in each hand, he delicately squeezes them, making Moana both wince in pain and moan in pleasure. Then, before Moana realises, his hands push down her stomach, through the dark triangle of hair between her legs and onto her pussy. Circling her entrance, Maui plunges one finger into the depths, hearing her yelp in pain, and with the other hand searches for her clit. 

When he finds it, Maui rubs his thumb gently across it and feels Moana spasm over his hand. Thrusting his finger gently, he adds another.

"Put - the - the third - the third finger i... in too," Moana pants, leaning forwards a little to see what he is doing. 

"Might be a little early." Maui says reluctantly, but slides it in anyway. Moana hisses in pain. 

"Nope, too early, take it out, take it -"

Maui stays with two fingers inside her and his left hand smearing her own juices over her clit. It takes mere minutes for her to orgasm, kicking a leg up and onto his shoulder, the other leg following. 

Still buzzing from her orgasm, Moana feels herself lift into the air. Maui is holding her ass to support her as she places her hands on his shoulders to steady herself. He carries her to a taller, steeper part of the small hill and places her so her back is against the wall of it. She arches against him as he licks a long stripe between her legs and she moans in pleasure.

"Maui... Maui... do it again... I want you to make me orgasm again..."

Maui can barely believe his ears. She is begging him to lick her! Well, he isn't going to pass up that offer. She tastes sweet but he can taste the ocean in her as he sucks on her clit, causing her to squeal in surprise and then satisfaction. Her squeal spurs Maui on; he licks and sucks alternately, then thrusts his tongue all the way inside her to taste her properly, making her scream and come into his mouth. 

"What do you want to do now?" Maui asks, his cock engorged and almost painful to touch. 

Moana looks down at him, panting, and lowers her eyes demurely. "I could touch you."

All of a sudden, Maui feels as though he is going to cum instantaneously. "Yeah," He smiles. "Yeah, that could be fun."

He lowers Moana onto the ground, slipping off his lava lava and letting his cock free. Sitting down, slightly back, he watches as Moana pulls her hair from its rapidly loosening bun and reties it, leaning towards his sizeable cock. 

"Lubricate your hand first." Maui suggests. 

Moana nods, then leans back with her legs splayed open, and wets her hand with the splashes of her own juices, cheekily looking up at Maui and then wriggling two of her own fingers in. 

Moaning, she pulls her fingers back out and rubs herself firmly. Hand covered in her own fluids, she spits on it for good measure and fingers his cock gingerly. Then, and Maui swears to himself that she's never looked as beautiful, looks up at him seductively and strokes down in one tentative movement. 

"Be firmer," Maui recommends, and she nods, squeezing gently but firmly as she pumps her hand up and down quickly. 

"Slow down!" Maui laughs. "It isn't a race. Be slower."

Moana concentrates hard as she pumps a little slower. Each time she reaches the tip she experiments a little, fiddling for a second before pumping back down, her fingers barely able to touch her thumb around his girth. On one pump she does something, he can't work out what, that leaves him gasping. 

"Yeah, that. Do that." He pants. He was close to cumming before, but now? Oh God. "I think I'm going to come." 

Moana looks up at him. "Can I make you?"

"Of course." He replies. "You can do anything you want to me."

"Can I make you come on my chest?" She asks wickedly. 

"Sure," Maui says, because to be honest, he's incapable of disagreeing with any of her seductive suggestions. Moana pulls forwards, fiddles once more with the tip of his cock and watches as Maui groans and shoots cum all over her chest. 

"Wait!" She sounds so upset that Maui looks up at her, a hazy glow which could be the fire (but he isn't quite sure) illuminating her figure. 

"You said you'd fuck me all over the island. There wasn't any... fucking."

"Mo, all of that was fucking. Just... in different ways," Maui chuckled. "Next time, I'll do your version of fucking as well as mine, hey?"

"There's going to be a next time?"

"Well, yeah. We both enjoyed each other... didn't we?" Maui asked. 

"Well then... but my parents will freak!"

"We'll see, I suppose. You might never get to see me again once you're back on the island. I might make a home of Te Fiti."

Moana thrust herself forwards and into his arms. "You can't go!" She wailed. "If I never saw you again, then I don't know what I'd do!"

Maui gently extracted her from the depths of his chest. "Look, Mo." He answered softly. "You're a chief and you're about three thousand years younger than I am. Your parents will ask you to get married soon, and I don't think a mortal can marry a demigod."

Moana put her head on his chest and started to cry.

"Mo. Look at me; do you really love me?"

Moana nodded miserably and sniffled.

"I don't know... I'll have to talk to the actual gods. I'm a lowly demigod, I can't change rules," He teased. Moana gave a watery smile and pulled her skirt back over her.

"I'm frozen. Even what we just did didn't warm me up too much," She giggled nervously. Maui kissed her forehead and watched as she settled down to sleep.

What the hell was he going to tell the gods?


	3. My Home, My People Beside Me - 'Ao'ao - June 25th to July 11th

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Moana returns to Motu Nui, minus Maui, and is welcomed home with open arms. That night she tells her stories. But while Moana is enjoying the attention, Maui has a much less enviable task. 
> 
> Ancient Polynesian calendar for later reference (the date(s) the story takes place on will appear in the title):  
> Lihamu’a: December 21 to January 21  
> Tanumanga: January 21 to Feburary 21  
> Vaimui: Feburary 21 to March 21  
> Fu’ufu’unekinanga: March 21 to April 21  
> Faka afu mate: April 21 to May 21  
> Liha-mui: May 21 to June 21  
> ‘Ao’ao: June 21 to July 21  
> Fakaafu-moui : July 21 to August 21  
> Vai mu’a: August 21 to September 23  
> ‘Uluenga: September 23 to October 21  
> Hilinga-mea’a: October 21 to November 21  
> Hilinga-kelekele: November 21 to December 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess what? I'm back! I'm so sorry, I've got GCSEs right now and I'm procrastinating revising (I have the first of two Physics papers today, help!) so I finished this! Turns out I'm better at writing smut in present tense and the rest in past! That's what will be happening now, sorry! I'll make it clear before the passages start. My uploading is likely to be erratic and infrequent until late June and then throughout most if not all of August cos I'm doing NCS. 
> 
> Here we go!

"Maui kissed her forehead and watched as she settled down to sleep. What the hell was he going to tell the gods?"

The next morning Moana woke up alone. 

"Maui?" She yawned as she rubbed her eyes. Then she remembered and her eyelids snapped open again. "Maui!"

Jumping up and wincing at the slight pain in her hips, she dressed, looked around her and saw a message scratched carefully into the sand at her feet. 

"Moana. I had to leave. I need to talk to the Gods. I'm sorry. I love you. But they will find out anyway and if I don't tell them soon I might never be able to see you again."

Moana felt a tear make its way down her cheek and onto the sand. "He had to go." She tried to reason. "He had to."

Standing up, she felt anger rise into her throat. "Why did he have to?" She shouted. "Why did he have to be a demigod? Why did he have to love me too? Why - why him?"

Sobbing, Moana kicked out randomly at the sandy message, over and over and over until there was nothing left of it. She sank onto the sand, her hand to her forehead, crying silently into her wrist. 

When she couldn't cry any more, Moana gathered herself and left the cave, pushing the boat into the water. Watching waves lap gently at her knees, she undressed, took a breath and pushed forward, washing the sweat from her skin and the sand from her feet. Climbing naked back onto the boat and quickly tying her top and skirt, Moana wound a rope around her wrist, pulled, and set sail. 

Moana sailed. Maui flew. 

He flew higher and higher, then plunged down and up again just before he hit the water. But he couldn't take his mind of the previous night; the way Moana felt around his fingers, the way her fingers felt around him. If he couldn't ever see her again... 

Maui shook his head until he became dizzy. He would arrive at the home of the Gods soon, the place that he had been brought to as a newborn and left as a teenager. He'd never called it home but it was usually nice to go back. Then Maui remembered why he was here and the prospect became a lot more daunting.

He'd slept with plenty of mortal women before, but never fallen in love with one, even though he'd accidentally produced a daughter with one of them. He'd seen their daughter been born, but he'd never seen her or her mother again. 

Maui shivered with anxiety. Moana sailed, unaware that Motu Nui was barely an hour away. 

"I wonder when we'll reach home," Moana mused to Heihei. "I hope it's soon. I need to get you away from the ocean before you drown, you dumb chicken." She laughed, but it was a thin, dry laugh. She didn't want to laugh. She wanted to cry. 

"I am Moana of Motu Nui. I have boarded my boat, sailed across the sea and restored the heart of Te Fiti. I am Moana of Motu Nui. I have boarded my boat..."

Moana continued for thirty long minutes, long enough for the sun to reach its peak. Looking up, in the distance she could see a bump rising above the horizon. 

"Motu Nui?" She said aloud hopefully, a feeling in the base of her stomach that was halfway between excitement and anticipation. "Am I home? Mom? Dad?"

The shape expanded until Moana could see beaches and hills in places she'd walked for years. Crossing the reef, Moana could see her parents running down the beach towards her. As her boat bumped the sea floor gently she bounded off of it and straight into her parents' arms. 

"Mom! Dad!"

"Moana!"

After a slightly teary few seconds - Moana can't even remember what her dad said about the reef, but he was smiling at least - she saw Pua racing down the beach and heard a wave of her people swarming towards them. 

"Pua!"

"She's back!"

"Moana!"

Moana's best friend Aikane came racing down the beach as well, and dived into her. 

"You did it! You actually did it - Moana, I'm so proud of you - I thought you might die but you didn't, you saved the world! Did you meet Maui? What's he like?"

Moana stifled a giggle and whispered to her father. "Can we have a feast tonight where I can tell my stories?"

"Anything." Tui smiled down at her. "I'm sure your grandmother is extremely proud of you."

"I know she is." Moana smiled, and squeezed Aikane even tighter, tears rolling down her cheeks in quick succession. 

It takes until after sunset, but Moana runs to every spot on the island, Aikane beside her and Pua scampering happily along, snorting every so often with excitement. When she reaches the cave of boats last of all, she stops and wanders slowly inside. 

"Aikane." Moana calls back. 

"Moana?" Aikane gingerly picks her way over the gloomy cavern floor. 

"Why are all the canoes mended? With new boards? Aikane?"

"Your father did it."

"Dad?" Moana couldn't quite understand what she was hearing. "Dad mended the boats?"

"No, not completely. He ordered the best builders and fishermen on the island to restore them and he helped."

Moana gawped at Aikane. "Wha - how - why - huh?"

Aikane sat down on the sand, motioning for Moana to sit too. Moana collapsed onto the sand, confused and slightly breathless. 

"After you left, your mom told your dad the same evening your gramma died. He was distraught, he stayed in his hut for three days and didn't eat. When he came out he ordered the men to restore the boats because he knew that's something you would have wanted to do."

"It was." Moana felt a lump in her throat. "It was."

Aikane smiled sympathetically. "Come on, it's time for the feast. Pua?"

Pua bounded over the grass with them as they approached the feast, dressed in their ceremonial outfits. Moana was welcomed with open arms, handed a wooden bowl of pork (she hastily put it back down when Pua whimpered), and begged for stories. 

"Quiet, quiet!" Tui shouted. "Let us be grateful that our next chief is home. Moana, we missed you. We shall feast and afterwards, Moana will tell her stories!"

Moana looked up at her father and hugged him. "I missed you too, Dad." 

Tui pulled away after a second, subtly wiped his eye and handed Moana a banana. 

The island ate and ate until the meal had sunk into random bits of coconut and pork, and only then did Moana stand up and proclaim: "Who wants to hear my stories?"

Everyone cheered and clapped, and there were shouts of "Yes! Yes! We want to hear!" 

Moana started on the night she left, running away, finding the boat, sailing. She leaves out the bit about the manta ray; she doesn't want people to think that she's crazy. Moving onto the storm and how she met Maui, there were gasps and cries of "You must have been terrified!"

Moana continues, detailing how she and Maui beat the Kakamora and how she eventually persuaded Maui to teach her to sail. Their first meeting with Te Ka; Moana admits that she was wrong to keep sailing on and tries not to let her guilt about Maui's hook get to her. Again, she leaves out the bit about her grandmother - she's not entirely sure it wasn't a dream - and lies, saying that she tried to sail away but couldn't bring herself to, and then dived down to get the heart back. 

She elaborates on how she sailed through the Barrier Islands and then almost died at the hands of Te Ka, but how Maui saved her at the last second. When Moana reveals that Te Ka was actually Te Fiti, she can feel the shock emanating from every opened mouth. But she pretends as though she sailed happily back, mentioning Maui's new tattoo, and very much not mentioning the fact that her and Maui had fucked on an island just a few hours away. 

The tales carry on for hours, until Moana works out that it's about the second or third hour of the early morning. No one had moved for all of the five or six hours she had been telling her stories, even toddlers who were almost asleep were still trying to listen intently and mothers holding newborn babies had only looked away to feed and rock them to sleep. 

When the tale ended, finishing at the start of the feast, Moana could feel everyone sitting perfectly still. She barely blinked before everyone began whooping and cheering. 

"Heroine!"

"Moana, well done!"

"How amazing!"

Tell us the bit about escaping Lalotai again!"

"For now, I think everyone should return to their huts and rest a little. I have spoken to Dad and decided that our island should be taught to wayfind, as though we may not need to sail now we have a thousand years of roots here, our children and grandchildren may wish to continue this legacy. I shall be teaching a select group of people how to be wayfinders from tomorrow, and then they shall teach their families until the entire island knows how to sail."

Nodding excitedly, the villagers hurried home to sleep. 

"My little minnow did all of that," Sina wondered, brushing tears from her cheeks. "Oh, may the Gods help me, my little minnow!"

"It's okay, Mom. I'm home. And I'm safe and well and I'm friends with the most notorious demigod there is! Our island is the safest place."

"And the wayfinding? I don't know if I'll be any good at it." Tui muttered unsurely. 

"You're the chief, Dad. You can do anything."

"Thank you, Moana. You're very kind. But remember, now you are home you may place a stone on the mountain. But you can only be chief once I die, as per Motu Nui tradition."

"You won't die for years, Dad."

"I hope not. But let us return home to sleep. You must be exhausted." Sina interrupted. The three of them took one look out over the ocean and turned for their beds. 

Far away, Maui flew. 

He could see the tall peaks of the stony cliff he was to meet the Gods on. Landing with a thump and transforming, Maui stamped a few times and shouted for the Gods. 

He waited for a second, frozen with his arms angled. Then the clouds split and a dark, thunderous noise rolled over him. Maui wasn't sure how a noise could be so menacing. 

"Maui, trickster demigod, speak."

"May I ask who I am in the presence of?" Maui asked as politely as he could. 

"Papa - Supreme mother god and Mother Earth, and I, Rangi - Supreme father god and father sky."

"I know who you are with just names, thanks." Maui scowled. Just because he was a demigod, they all assumed that he was stupid. They'd been the two that had made him a demigod!

"Why are you here, demigod?" Rangi boomed. 

"Are you aware of Te Fiti's revival?" Maui asked. 

"Yes, of course. We are omnipresent and omnipotent, as you should know."

"Then YOU should know why I am here." Maui said, irritated. 

"There are many things you have done wrong, Maui, that you have never explained or apologised for." Papa said sternly. 

"Well..." Maui stuttered a bit, embarrassed. "You will be aware of my acquaintance with Moana, the young girl who saved Te Fiti?"

"Oh yes, we are very aware of that." Rangi answered. "What have you come to do? Are you here to apologise?"

"No." Maui said weakly. Then he stood straight and repeated: "No. I am here to say that I love her. And I want to marry her. And I cannot live without her, I can't imagine what that would be like."

"You are without her now." Rangi observed.

Maui gritted his teeth. 

"So you wish to become mortal?"

"If that is what it takes, yes. But I want to be the same age as her. I don't want to die instantly because I've been alive for thousands of years."

"Well, Maui, trickster demigod, we can make you mortal. You will lose the miniature version of yourself on your chest, but you shall retain the ability to shapeshift. You shall become sixteen years of age: but only if she accepts your offer of formal courtship."

Maui bowed his head and looked at Mini-Maui. He was more of a hindrance than a help, playing to his conscience instead of his thoughts. But he'd miss the little guy. 

"Will I still be known as a demigod until I die?"

"If you so wish. But you shall be Maui, the mortal trickster demigod. A demigod who - "

"Yes, Rangi." Maui answered. "I understand the concept."

"Well then. You had best return to your lover."

Thwe thunder rolled away overhead. Maui transformed into his signature hawk and flew back to Moana.


	4. We Sail The Length Of The Sea - 'Ao'ao - July 31st to August 6th

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a month on the water the village returns to Motu Nui, their knowledge stored for use. Moana misses Maui a little too much... and they both know it, as Maui returns to the Gods to rethink his original decision.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Sorry I haven't updated for ages, I turned 16 the Saturday before last (27th May) and still have exam after exam - seven more left (over two weeks) out of nineteen total - I have English Language 1 tomorrow so I thought I'd practice some creative writing! :p  
> Enjoy, share, comment, kudos. I researched a fair bit of Polynesian mythologies for this chapter but it might still be a bit off. I also struggled with the flow of the writing because there isn't much interaction in this chapter.  
> Thank you!  
> Gracie xx

Maui had a hard time comprehending the news that he would become mortal. He wanted to, he did; he could be with Moana, he could be with her... but mortal?

He'd specifically asked the Gods to make him mortal, but he hadn't accepted that that was all they wanted of him. There was always something else, another condition, another thing he had to obey before he could marry her. 

And mortal?

He'd die one day if he became mortal. He'd grow old, and tired, and he'd get ill, and injured. 

It had seemed a good idea before. But now it was going to happen, he had a horrible feeling in the base of his stomach. 

 

"Moana?"

Moana turned to see a familiar face behind her. 

"Hi, Aikane! We'll be home early tomorrow morning if this wind keeps up." Moana flicked a rope carefully. She was the only one on the front of the canoe and barely had a moment to look at Aikane before having to twitch their direction again. 

"That's good. I miss Motu Nui, I can definitely believe it's been a month since we set sail!"

The two teenagers stood on the deck, squinting at the stars until they saw some they recognised. 

"You want to see which direction we're headed?" Moana asked. 

Aikane cautiously held up a hand. "East?" She asked tentatively. 

"Yes!" Moana nodded. "East."

"The way you went."

Moana nodded again, remembering the night she'd left. 

"Did I tell you what I did the day after we realised you'd gone?" Aikane murmured. 

"No." Moana turned to look at her, frowning a little. 

"I tried to go after you."

"Aikane, you didn't! There was that storm, and -"

"I know. I was just so scared for you, I wasn't thinking straight. When the storm hit I had only just passed the reef. My boat sank. I washed up on Motu Nui the next morning." Aikane's voice cracked. "I remember thinking that you wouldn't be so lucky. And then you came home and I just -"

Moana cut her off with a hug. "You went out to try to save me, even though you didnt know any more about sailing than I did." Moana felt her own voice wobble. "You almost died just to make sure I was okay." 

Aikane nodded, tears rolling down her cheeks. 

"Aikane, how was I so lucky to become best friends with you?"

"I don't know." Aikane gave a watery smile and looked over Moana's shoulder. "Wait - what's that?!"

Moana spun around almost instantly. There was a dark shape moving towards them in the air. Tears forgotten, Moana clambered higher to look. Her fear turned to a smile as she recognised the hawk heading straight for them. 

"Maui! You scared us!"

Maui landed on the deck with a thump as he transformed. 

"Aikane, can you give us a minute?" Moana asked. Aikane nodded and disappeared into the shadows. 

"Did you go to see the Gods?" Moana asked. 

Maui hesitated. 

Moana raised an eyebrow. "Maui?"

"No, not yet." Maui lied. He had to go back and find what the catch was. He didn't want to find out the hard way. 

"You said you would!" Moana hesitated. "Maui - do you not want to be with me?"

"What? Yes - yes, of course I do, Mo, I - I just have some - some stuff to do beforehand."

"Like what?" Moana asked, suspicious. 

"I gotta go." Maui said randomly. "I'll visit them tonight, I promise."

"Maui - don't you dare -"

Maui jumped into the air and turned into a hawk with a shrill squawk. 

"Maui!" Moana shouted. "Come back here!"

Aikane emerged from the shadows. 

"He's not one for goodbyes, is he?" She laughed. 

Moana sighed and returned to the ropes, swinging up them to look out over the ocean ahead. The sun was just beginning to rise, and a small peak was growing on the horizon. 

"Motu Nui!" Moana breathed. Aikane caught sight of it too, and began to yell: "Motu Nui! Motu Nui!"

The villagers woke with a start, and began scrambling to their positions at various ropes and angles. They were almost home!

 

Meanwhile, Maui had returned to the home of the Gods. 

"Rangi. Papa." Maui was pleading.

"Demigod, you are of such cheek. You wish to watch the girl you love grow old and die while you remain young and strong? How will you feel when she is dead and gone and you come back, begging to die to be with her?" Rangi boomed. 

"Anything. I'll do anything. I don't want to be mortal. I don't want to grow old and die, and get ill and injured."

"You don't want to die? You coward." Papa shook her head and muttered something that Maui couldn't make out. "You disgust me, coward."

Maui felt anger rise in his throat. "I am no coward."

"Prove it to us." Papa replied. "Return to Lalotai and fight the taniwha that resides in the water. If you can bring us one of his teeth, we shall grant you immortality and Moana."

"The taniwha is the biggest creature in Lalotai." Maui snarled. "How am I supposed to defeat it?"

"Are you a coward?" Rangi shouted. "Are you a coward, demigod?"

"No!" Maui yelled defensively. 

"Fight the taniwha. If you want to be with Moana you shall."

"Must I kill it?"

"No. Just bring us one of its teeth. That should be hard enough."

"How long do I have?"

"A week." Papa announced. "If after one week from today out cannot bring us a tooth of the taniwha then you shall never see your precious Moana again."

The thunder clouds rolled away once again, taking Rangi and Papa with them.  
Maui sighed, and made his way back towards Lalotai. 

 

Moana was safely home. The animals, the crops, the huts... they had all been cared for by the elders of the village, who had not been strong enough to sail but had been strong enough to farm, and the expectant mothers. Three babies had been born during the month, and every one had been greeted by their fathers as they jumped from the canoes.

Every bit of fruit was ripe, every animal ready for eating, and the feast that ensued that evening was momentous. 

But Moana couldn't stop thinking about Maui. 

Not about him, about the night they'd had. About the feeling of his fingers, his tongue.

She told Aikane she would be back in a little while and turned back for her hut, the flames of the torches lighting her way. 

Moana hurried, knowing that she only had a certain amount of time to do it. At the doorway she paused, turning instead for the forest, climbing the second highest peak of the island, shielding herself in the long grass as she lowered herself to the ground. 

Pulling her top down over one breast and lifting her outer skirts, hastily undoing and pulling away the bottom layer, she tipped her head back and circled her nipple with a finger. She pushed her other hand down, trying to mimic the motions Maui had made. 

She did this probably about once every two weeks, but hadn't during their time at sea. She could feel herself relax into it as almost six weeks of pleasure ran through her veins. 

Swirling her fingers in patterns she remembered Maui doing had her gasping. She fucked forwards, grinding her hips into her hand, entering herself with one finger, two... her right hand left her breast and searched for her clit.

She lavished attention onto herself, soaking her fingers in her own fluids, massaging her own entrance. 

Gasps turned to breathy squeals, as circles turned to desperate, random patterns. 

Moana finished with a scream, muffled in the grass until even she can barely hear her outburst of pleasure. She wiped her hand on the grass and fastened her skirt, creeping back to her hut to brush the grass from her hair and the sea to wash the smell from her. 

When she returned to the feast, only Aikane knew she had left. 

The slight pain in her hips was overshadowed by the even more painful feelings it produced - the absence of Maui, the one person who could make her feel even better than that. 

 

Maui landed on the entrance to Lalotai with a thump, three days later. The entrance hadn't been touched in more than two months and yet it was covered with dust deeper than Maui's feet. 

He took a monumental breath and blew all of it away, but he felt uneasy. The taniwha was huge, and it could quite easily kill him, despite his demigod status. 

He would have to defeat it today, if he wanted to fly back within one week to present its' tooth. He cycled through a few water dwelling forms - whale, different sizes of fish - before deciding on a shark, for the teeth. 

Diving head first off the peak of Lalotai and into the waters below, he realised that the last time he had been here was with Moana. 

They could have been killed almost immediately if the taniwha had appeared. He hoped that this meant it was dead, or weakened, but he knew that the gods wouldn't send him if it was that easy. 

He spotted the taniwha on the seabed, a great snake-like creature with limbs that were thicker than Maui himself. He dived down towards it and immediately bit it hard on the neck. 

The taniwha reared up, screaming in anger, and slashed its limbs violently through the water. Maui dived around it, biting strategically to get it to turn its head. 

The taniwha's limb caught him with a swipe and sent him tumbling down to the sea floor - Maui barely had a second to regain his shark form before the same limb crashed onto the ground behind him. Maui used the brief distraction to turn into a tiny fish and swim as close as he could get. 

"Hey, taniwha!" He shouted through the water. The taniwha turned its head just as Maui transformed into his normal form, slashing hard at the thing's mouth with his hook. 

The taniwha screamed again, coiling its neck back to strike. Maui dodged and hit hard again, before transforming back into a shark and -

The next thing he knew he was on the sea bed again, the taniwha reaching down to squash him, to pound him into the sand. Wincing at a sharp pain in his back, he transformed, dodging once more, to take one final slash at the taniwha's mouth. 

One great, white tooth cracked and fell towards Maui. He turned into a whale, grabbing it in his mouth, and swam up as quickly as he could, bursting out of the ocean's waves with all the speed of a bird. The taniwha was lost from sight, wounded on the sea floor, as Maui swam fast towards a nearby island. 

Maui gave a great shout of joy, stamping madly and angling his arms as he turned back into a demigod. 

He examined his arms and back: Only a being of evil could defeat him, and that had certainly happened. His back was covered in scratches and his left arm bore a nasty gash. Rinsing it quickly with sea water and hissing at the stinging, he watched as the wounds began to heal. That was another perk of being a demigod, at least. 

He quickly set to work creating a way to carry the tooth while flying, weaving leaves and branches together as fast as he could. 

He could marry Moana now. He could live forever, and still have Moana. 

Maui felt a twinge of guilt; he would one day have to give her up to Death. But he'd have their children; not that it would matter, after a few centuries he'd still be kicking and his great-great-great-great-great grandchildren would barely know his relation to them. 

Not for the first time since leaving Moana, he spent a long time thinking. 

Am I doing the right thing?


	5. You're Looking At Him, Yo - Fakaafu-moui - August 19th

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maui arrives on Motu Nui on Moana's birthday and asks Tui and Sina for their permission to formally court Moana. Tui and Sina might not be too happy, but Moana is and that's what matters. 
> 
> Ancient Polynesian calendar for later reference (the date(s) the story takes place on will appear in the title):  
> Lihamu’a: December 21 to January 21  
> Tanumanga: January 21 to Feburary 21  
> Vaimui: Feburary 21 to March 21  
> Fu’ufu’unekinanga: March 21 to April 21  
> Faka afu mate: April 21 to May 21  
> Liha-mui: May 21 to June 21  
> ‘Ao’ao: June 21 to July 21  
> Fakaafu-moui : July 21 to August 21  
> Vai mu’a: August 21 to September 23  
> ‘Uluenga: September 23 to October 21  
> Hilinga-mea’a: October 21 to November 21  
> Hilinga-kelekele: November 21 to December 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry about my lack of updating. I finished my GCSEs just over a month ago and since then I've done my work experience, my A-Level prep work, and I've just been relaxing a lot. Updates might not be regular, but they will be closer together!
> 
> Enjoy - Gracie xx

Flying back to the gods, the taniwha's tooth weighing heavily in the hastily wrapped basket, Maui had a lot of time to think. 

"I do feel better having thought about it. I don't need to tell Moana! I'll tell her that I needed to fight the taniwha to prove I was worthy of marriage to a mortal."

Landing heavily on the rock opened up the skies automatically this time, the thunderous clouds rolling over a clear sky. 

"You have the tooth?" Rangi asked. Maui proffered the bulky basket. Papa took a breath and sighed deeply. 

"Very well, Maui, you may return to your beloved Moana, as immortal as you are now, and marry her, if you have not been defeated by your usually fickle brain."

"Oh, well, you know, I was planning on risking my life and almost losing an arm for the fun of it, you know." Maui snapped. 

"I would hurry back to Motu Nui if I were you. It should take you four days to get there, and by that time it will be Moana's seventeenth birthday."

"Gods!" Maui exclaimed, panic-stricken: "What do I do? Or give her?"

"Moana really has changed you." Rangi observed. "You would previously have named your presence as your gift. 

Maui snarled up at the thundercloud, pacing and twisting his hair. "Could I give her the tooth?"

"If you want to be mortal."

The thundercloud rolled away, lifting the tooth with it.

Maui rolled his eyes and slumped against his hook, staring mindlessly into the water, until his eyes widened dramatically and he bounced back up. "The waters around here are full of oysters! I'll get her a pearl. There must be at least one around here -"

An hour later, a pearl clasped in one talon, Maui set out for Motu Nui.

 

"Happy birthday, my little minnow." Sina kissed Moana on the forehead as she entered the shade of the trees where Moana sat, weaving a basket, Pua sat attentively beside her. "Guess what I have?"

"Thank you, Mom - but I really didn't want anything, I mean -"

"Nonsense. This was your grandma's." Sina held out a little, flat, wooden square, carved with a pattern of a stingray and a few waves. It was no bigger than Moana's thumbnail. "You used to play with it when you were little, pretending you were the stingray, splashing about in the waves." Her eyes filled with tears. 

Moana took it gently from her hand. "I remember that." After examining it for a moment, she flicked open the clasp on her necklace and placed the carving inside. 

"Don't cry, Mom - I'm only seventeen. It's not anything important."

"You are the next chief! We marked the day of your birth for a reason. We want you to count the years you will be chief, to commemorate the years you will look after our people."

"Your mother is right. It is an important day. I hope you are hungry - we have a feast being prepared for tonight." Tui answered, placing his hand on Sina's shoulder. 

Suddenly a boy no older than Moana ran up behind the three. "Chief!"

"What is wrong, Aukai?" Tui asked, his brow furrowed. 

"There's a man on the beach. A strange man. He transformed from a hawk, he keeps asking for Moana."

"Maui!" Moana's face lit up, then darkened again. "Maui, have I got some things to say!" She whispered angrily, following Aukai down to the beach. 

"Moana!" Maui called. 

"Maui." Moana answered calmly. 

"Happy birthday...?" He said, gingerly handing her the pearl. Instantly Moana brightened and smiled, and he relaxed, thankful she wasn't angry with him. 

"How did you know? I've never seen a pearl this big!" Moana exclaimed, polishing the pearl with a strand of hair.

"The gods told me." Maui said meaningfully. Moana straightened her back and lifted her chin. 

"If everyone would please return to their business, I have some things to talk about with the demigod Maui."

The crowd muttered, intrigued, and moved away from the two. Moana led him to the cavern of boats, just up the hills and over the grass, as Maui told her in a low voice about what he had done. 

"Yes Maui, but why?" Moana huffed for the millionth time. Maui looked around guiltily and began to explain once they were inside the cave.

"... and so, here I am."

"Here you are." Moana whispered in astonishment. "You did that for me? Just so you could be with me?"

"I could easily have killed the taniwha, but the gods told me to just get the tooth." Maui boasted. Moana raised her eyebrows and shook her head, a smile playing on her lips. 

Maui leant in gently, expecting Moana to turn away, but she looked him dead in the eye and shook her head. 

"We can't. Not until we announce a formal courting process has begun." 

"And how do we do that?"

Moana bit her lip. "We talk to my parents."

 

"Mom. Dad." Moana said, bowing her head, trying to be as polite as she could. Maui hovered in the shadows of a nearby tree, watching as the tips of the fronds on the roof of Moana's parents' hut waved lazily in the calm breezes and listening to her words of explanation. His heart was racing - not necessarily because of Moana and what was happening, but because once this happened, that was it. He was bound to her. He could break the courtship, but he couldn't do that to either of them. He loved her. He was sure she loved him. It was now. 

"And who is this man?" Tui sighed heavily. 

Maui jolted forwards and into the hut. 

"Maui." Moana said nervously. "It's Maui."

"Maui?" Sina gasped. "Not a demigod - are you allowed to do such a thing - to marry a mortal?"

"Yes. I have proved my worth to the Gods and they have allowed it." Maui nodded, his cheeks burning a furious red. He had faced Tamatoa, the taniwha, monsters of the sky and the sea and the land, and yet Moana's parents - two mortals - terrified him. 

"You fought the taniwha." Sina said. "To be with our daughter."

Maui nodded, shaking a terrified-looking Mini-Maui from his chest. Tui's gaze dropped to him as he was shaken away and a smile played on his lips exactly like Moana had. 

"Chief, Chiefess, I would be so happy to court your daughter. I can't think of any way I would have rather proved myself worthy of her."

"Very well." Sina sighed, looking at Tui. "What do you think about all of this?"

"I think it's an excellent idea. Moana should be in courtship already. She should have been at sixteen. They obviously want to be together. It may even provide heirs."

Sina nodded. "Very well. You shall be allowed to enter formal courtship."

Moana blew out a breath and Maui slipped his arm around Moana. 

"But even though a formal courtship has been arranged there shall be no lustful contact until an agreement has been made about a marriage." Tui said sternly. Moana avoided a guilty look from Maui, which neither Tui nor Sina noticed. 

Moana led Maui to her hut to show him around. Since returning from voyaging she had been given Gramma Tala's and though the screens had been replaced with ones decorated with waves and canoes, the old ones had been recycled as blankets and sleeping mats. Maui looked around. 

"It's nice." He acknowledged. "Spacious."

"My gramma's."

"The one that died, the night you left?" Maui asked bluntly. Moana gave him a look that he correctly interpreted and quickly changed the subject. 

"So where do I sleep? Is there a spare hut somewhere?"

"There's one right next door. It's only small, but..." Moana bit her lip. 

"I'm sure it's going to be perfect." Maui said quickly to try to set her at ease. "Don't worry about me."

"You'll probably be spending some of your time in here anyway." Moana looked up through her eyelashes, something she'd seen Aikane do to Opetaia, the teen that Aikane had been trying to court for a year. Maui felt himself get a little hard, then repressed the feeling and focused on Moana.

"I expect a little more than some. I missed you."

"I missed you too..."

Moana and Maui collided, their limbs entangled, their lips meeting over and over, interspersed with Moana's little gasps of pleasure.

"We have almost half the day before sunset. We're having a feast for my birthday." Moana attempted to hint at her meaning. 

"Do you know somewhere more private?" Maui muttered through the layers of hair draped over her shoulder. Moana looked up at him, pleased that he'd taken the hint. 

"I know a place."

Moana explained, leading Maui, who had hastily rolled up a couple of mats, through the forest just behind the hut, that only she and Aikane knew of the place they were headed. When they were children they would play there, and there was still the sound of the waterfall crashing down not far from them, running in rivers to the ocean. 

Maui unfurled the mats and lay them down of the forest floor. There wasn't a hut to be seen and hadn't been for several minutes, as they hurried into the trees without anyone seeing them. 

"Happy birthday, Cur - Moana." Maui said, pulling her in and pressing their lips together. Moana pushed into his arms, returning the kiss with an enthusiasm that Maui found almost erotic; her little moans as he kissed down her jaw and into her hair only added to this, and before he realised what he'd done he had stripped her of the clothes she was wearing, and was attempted awkwardly to pull down his with one hand as the other trailed down her chest, kneading the smooth flesh and gently pinching the rounded nipple.

Moana helped Maui remove his loincloth and gasped as his hand reached her stomach, tracing further and further until he could feel soft hair curling under his fingers. She pulled away and led Maui by the hand to the mats, pulling him down into the place where, she realised, she was happiest.

After they had finished, Maui propped himself up on a meaty elbow and watched as Moana closed her eyes, exhausted. Turning over, Maui stared at the rapidly setting sun. They had time before the feast, if Maui woke Moana up in a little bit. 

For now, he just sat, thinking. 

He was so conflicted... part of him wanted to run, fly, swim, far away, do anything he could to leave. He loved Moana, there was no doubt about that, but could he watch her grow old? Die in front of him? He couldn't stay on the island forever, he was a demigod, he was a way finder and an explorer and not someone to tie himself down. Maui knew that whatever he did - ran away, or stayed - he would feel guilty for her aging, the promises that they would be together, her death. He would have to go to another island, maybe marry someone else, maybe have children with them, and start the cycle all over again. 

Children.

Maui out his head into his hands. Children. If he stayed, he would be marrying the most beautiful and intelligent girl - even if she had been a bit of a brat when he met her, just grabbing him and trying to force him to return the heart - that he'd known in hundreds of years. He might not find that again. He loved her, he really did, he could barely think about her getting injured, or ill, but... she was the daughter of the Chief. She would need heirs. They would have to have children. 

Maybe not, he thought desperately. We could find an orphaned child, and orphaned baby, raise it... but he knew, deep down, that that child wouldn't be allowed to inherit the title. 

Maui pushed the last thought away. She might like that idea. She was a stubborn girl, he was sure when she's Chief she could get the rule changed, and she did love the little children around the village, he had seen that today. "Maybe that's not such a bad idea." He mumbled. 

"Maui?" Moana murmured, opening her eyes slightly and trailing a hand over his shoulder to pull herself up. 

"Nothing. We should probably get ready for the feast." Maui kissed her and helped her wriggle back into her clothes, run fingers through her mess of curls and set her back on her feet. 

It's absolutely crazy, how he feels right now, and he knows it, but he can't think about that yet. He just can't. 

Moana leads him to the feast, having hurriedly changed into her ceremonial clothes after they both scrubbed the various fluids from their skin - the sight of her silhouette against the darkening sky had almost prompted Maui to suggest they blow off the feast for a second round - and sat down not a moment too soon. 

"Moana, I see you have been showing Maui around our island." Sina hugged her daughter tightly. "I can still barely believe there is a living island to show. Thank you, Maui, for assisting our daughter in her quest."

Maui was almost tempted to reply that she would've died if he hadn't taught her to sail, hadn't gone back for her when he knew she was doomed, but the tear shining on Sina's cheek told him to keep quiet. 

"I mean, we may have lost our island and our daughter, and that would be too much to bear."

"Alright Mom, just make the courting announcement. I'm hungry!" Moana hugged her mother back and wriggled away, slipping her hand into Maui's under the table and knocking the flower from behind her right ear. 

"Your flower -" Maui started. Moana looked at the floor and instinctively put her hand to her ear to feel for it. "What? Did I drop it?"

"Yes, but I caught it, it's okay." Maui handed the flower back to Moana and she went to tuck it behind her right ear. "Oh, wait -"

Instead of her right ear, as he had always seen it, she tucked it behind her left. 

"Why there?" Maui asked. 

"Once a girl is in a romantic relationship the flower swaps sides to signify that she is no longer single." Moana explained, a small smile growing under the bloom. 

"That's a tradition that still exists?! I'd forgotten about it! That's what they did on the last -" Maui cut himself short and was glad when barely a second later Moana's attention was diverted as Tui cleared his throat and clapped twice. The village silenced, all staring expectantly at their chief. 

"Today, we decided that since Moana is seventeen years of age on this day, she should be allowed to take a courtship. This was of a prompt, however; Moana has decided to court the demigod Maui, who has proved himself to be a worthy candidate by saving our Moana's life and trying to convince the gods themselves to allow him to marry Moana if they decided to do so."

There was a rustle of voices and everyone turned to look at Moana and Maui, seated beside each other with bright, fake smiles worthy of the future chief and her court.

"I'm sure you will wish them a long courtship and a happy one."

The villagers muttered, some in surprise, some in disapproval. 

After the dinner, Moana showed Maui to his hut again. 

"You can come into mine once the village is quiet." Moana whispered. 

"Nah, I'm exhausted. But tomorrow morning I might sneak in and we can do it before the village day begins."

"Okay." Moana gave Maui a long look, lighting a torch, and then burst out: "What were you about to say, earlier?"

"What do you mean?"

"What I told you about the tradition, and Dad cut you off. You said something about the last. The last what?"

"The last island I visited before my exile." Maui explained, trying to hide his fear.

"Oh." Moana said, her suspicions fading. "Well, good night." She kissed him gently on the mouth and disappeared into the darkness. 

That was true. That had happened on the last island he'd visited. 

What he didn't want to tell Moana was why. He'd been courting this girl, Hiiki, this beautiful beautiful girl... nowhere near Moana, no one could touch her, but the next best thing. She wanted the heart of Te Fiti and the villagers agreed that he was a demigod, he could capture the heart of Te Fiti. Soon it spread to the chief and he had insisted that Maui get the heart. When he refused, they banished him from the island. 

After barely a week on another island, he had decided that it was necessary. He needed to be with her again, he needed to marry her, she was his. If he could get the heart for her, he could go back and marry her...

Maui extinguished the torch and promised himself never to tell Moana about Hiiki. She didn't want to know about him loving others. He didn't love her any more, he loved Moana. Hiiki was dead, long dead. It was all in the past now, the mistake he'd made. He hadn't seen Hiiki since, and he felt so guilty, now Moana had explained in no uncertain terms what his mistake, his stupid love-driven mistake, had brought about. 

Pulling a long tapa over himself and rolling over, Maui drifted off into sleep. 

It was all in the past now.


	6. You'll Be Okay - 'Uluenga - September 25th to September 29th

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> During their courtship, Moana and Maui go out voyaging and come across a storm while returning home, injuring Moana's foot and stopping her from sailing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m SO SORRY for not updating. Genuinely I really am, I’ve struggled so much with whether or not to actually continue this fic as I feel as though what I have planned is too domestic, but don’t worry, it will continue!  
> Gracie xx

"Mom, come on!" Moana huffed. "Maui and I have been courting for a month, and anyway, we were voyaging for months together. It's fine!"  
"Months?" Sina raised an eyebrow.  
"Okay, maybe not months, but a long time! And I survived until I got to Maui's island and then he helped me."  
"Okay. If you're sure you can do it... but please be careful. I don't want you to come back dead or injured!"  
"I restored life to the entire world via a lava demon and you're worried about a few days voyage with Maui?"  
"You're still my baby!" Sina pulled Moana close into her.  
"Mom, I'm seventeen!" Moana protested, but allowed Sina to kiss her forehead and squeeze her tight, before protesting after a minute and pulling away.  
"I know. But I think about how dangerous it was and I just..." Sina's eyes filled with tears. Moana hugged her again in consolation but then bounded away over the grass towards Maui's tiny hut, the sun reaching its highest.  
"Maui!" She yelled as she approached, then checked - it was midday, he was probably picking coconuts or, more likely, helping fish.  
It turned out the latter was the right option: looking out to sea, Moana recognised a sail no bigger at this distance than her thumbnail, right out over the reef. Unless a villager had become very brave and/or irrational, it was Maui. Despite the months voyaging, Moana had yet to convince her people to fish in the dangerous waters past the reef.  
Instead of taking a boat out to greet him, the ocean carried Moana past the other waving fishermen towards the boat and deposited her gently on the deck behind him. Maui turned with a start and immediately his face spilt with a smile.  
"Couldn't resist being away from me for much longer than an hour, princess?" He smirked, pulling on a rope and then rapidly switching direction. Moana lifted an eyebrow.  
"Okay, okay. What did your mom say?"  
"We can. Since dad is really busy she'll talk to him, but she can't see him saying no."  
"Are you sure? Your dad's quite protective."  
"I'm the next chief. He knows I have to practice voyaging to lead our people."  
Maui felt himself panic a little at the words "our people", but he mentally pinched himself and brought himself back down to earth. "When do we leave, chief?"  
"We can go early tomorrow morning. We'll set off before dawn, save having to say goodbye, like I did the last time I ran away..." Moana trailed off and Maui saw her teeth bite at her bottom lip.  
"Hey, hey." Maui took one tiny hand in his. "You aren't running away this time. It's not going to be as scary. You're a good wayfinder! There won't be any scary storms, and if there are, you won't be alone, you'll be with a demigod."  
"Just a demigod? I don't get a real god on my side?" Moana returned his earlier smirk. In one fluid motion Maui used the hand he was holding to fling Moana behind him. The ocean danced again and, pulling her to the surface, sped her back to land, Maui following behind and laughing. 

The next day Maui crept into Moana's hut as the moon began to sink over the glimmering ocean, the boat prepared for their new voyage and already tethered to a rock, floating in the shallows.  
As he neared her, curled in blankets at the other side of the hut, Heihei and Pua rose from a basket beside her and peck or snuffle his feet. Maui muttered a quiet oath of pain and at the noise Moana turned over, hair messy from the tapa covering her. Upon seeing Maui she smiled, sat up and greeted him with a little peck on the mouth.  
"You ready to be off?"  
"Boat's ready." Maui nodded. Hand in hand, they crept towards the beaches and pushed off of the shore with a quick motion. Moana tried to forget the more recent memory of pushing a boat into a dark sky, fuelled by fear and excitement, and as Maui unfurled the sails and paddled it from the shallows, Moana bit back an urge to shout wait! Turn back!  
Maui tapped Moana on the shoulder. "You want to steer?"  
Moana turned around, biting her lip, and fake smiled. "Sure!" She said, and winced - she was too bright, too loud, too cheerful.  
Maui tilted his head and raised an eyebrow. "Curly?"  
Moana looked up as she took the proffered oar. "Mm?"  
"You're going to be okay." Maui said, as gently as he could. "You aren't facing lava demons, giant crabs, or handsome demigods. You're facing a sea that you are pretty much the ruler of, and you're facing it with me. We're only sailing to an island that we should see tonight, and we aren't even staying that long. You'll be home within a week, and no one will be dead, no one will be angry. Okay?"  
"Okay." Moana breathed a sigh of content, the rocking of waves relaxing her, and felt her muscles relax.  
"Now muscle up, buttercup." Maui winked. "We've got a whole day to sail, and then we're staying on the island for two days. They'll be plenty of time for lovin'."  
Moana laughed and tapped him on the head briefly, before assuming her position seated at the back of the boat, her hand in the water.  
"We need to head East." Maui reminded her.  
Instantly Moana's smile disappeared and turned into a scowl. "I know. You've told me like ten times. I can do it."  
"Sorry, sorry." Maui held his hands up in apology. "Sometimes I forget how capable you are now."  
"I'm sorry, I'm just nervous, and -" Moana broke off and ran a damp hand through her curls.  
"Hey, hey! You've been out voyaging before." Maui reassured her.  
"It's not that, it's... the last time I voyaged properly beyond the reef was when almost the whole village was with me. I haven't done it alone since I came back from Te Fiti, and -" Moana broke off again, this time clenching her fist around the oar.  
"But you aren't alone. And you can do it! You're a great wayfinder, I taught you everything I know."  
"I know. I know. But I keep thinking about the storm..."  
"The storm that brought you to your current lover?" Maui asked, eyebrow raised and smirk clearly visible. Moana bit her lip to hide her smile. "Point taken."  
"No storms, Curly. I promise. It's quite a calm sea."

"Okay, we should be arriving at the island in about an hour." Maui called, jumping from the top of the mast. He looked down at Moana, her smile illuminated by the sinking sunset, and felt a surge of something like love. "But I'm warning you, there's a little storm ahead."  
"A storm?" Moana felt anxiety bubble in her stomach.  
"Hey hey! You aren't alone, it's only a small one. You're going to be okay. I just thought I'd warn you."  
Moana bit her lip and nodded, determined. "I restored life to the whole world. I can get through a storm." She chanted to herself.  
As they approached the clouds rolling overhead, Moana felt her skin cool and rain drops fell onto her upturned hand. A wind blew her hair harshly into her face, and she copied Maui by tying it up.  
"What do we do? Sail straight through? Or turn?" She yelled to Maui over the wind.  
"Um... keep going. It's a bit bigger than I anticipated, but we'll be fine. Anyway, we're already too far in to turn."  
Inside, Maui was cursing repeatedly. He thought it was a tiny storm, he thought they'd be through it in barely a few minutes. The waves were already higher than he would've liked. He stamped on the cubby lid to make sure it was secured, and then he was hit by the spray of a wave hitting the side of the boat, filling his eyes with ocean.  
"Hey!" He complained. "Calm it down there!"  
Moana gasped as the same thing happened to her, and then Maui heard a squeal. Turning, he realised Moana had been pushed overboard, and while the water had picked her up and deposited her back on the boat, she was sobbing in pain and clutching her foot. He immediately rushed to her, but the waves pushed over the boat before he could investigate and everything went black. 

Moana came to on the sand at around midnight. Looking around, she could see the boat, upside down with the sail torn, floating just off the edge of the now calm water, and was hit by the memory of the last time this had happened. Then she felt a wave of pain so bad that she turned her head and threw up sea water on the sand.  
Maui came to about twenty metres behind Moana. She was coughing up sea water, but by the time he had reached her she was shivering in shock. As he neared her he could see the sand around her foot soaked in blood.  
"Curly, you okay?" He asked urgently.  
"I don't know - my foot -" Moana sobbed. Maui prised her hand from around it and was shocked to see a gash as long and thick as his finger running along the bottom of it.  
"Okay, Curly. I'm going to carry you down to the sea to wash that up. You're going to be okay, I've made a leaf bandage before. Shh, shh."  
As gently as he was able, Maui picked Moana up like a baby and carried her carefully. Moana's sobbing turned to gasps of pain as the sea water made the cut sting, and Maui kissed her forehead to soothe her. As he turned back up the beach, he recognised the pattern of the palm trees, and the cave near the edge of the water that the boat was propped up on.  
"Hey Mo?"  
Moana made a noise of response.  
"We made it to the island."  
Moana laughed in a half bitter, half amused way. "Took a h-h-hell of a journey to get here." She took a shuddering breath and regained some composure.  
"We'll stay here until you can walk. In the mean time you're going in this cave. I'm going to find some fruit and some leaves, I'll be back in a bit." Maui tentatively lowered Moana onto the sand and put her foot up on a rock. He could see that it had stopped bleeding and started healing, which was a good sign.  
As he disappeared from the mouth of the cave, Moana looked around and into the crisp, calm waters of the night sky. Finally, she took another shuddering breath and fell asleep on the sand.  
When Maui returned, he noticed that Moana had her eyes shut and started towards her, before seeing the up-down, up-down of her chest and realising she was still alive. Until she wakes up, he decided, I'll eat something and weave the bandage. 

"Moana?"  
Moana awoke to Maui's gentle shaking.  
"Maui." Moana opened her eyes and winced, looking down at her foot, where Maui had expertly woven and wound a bandage around it.  
"Does it still hurt?" Maui asked her. "Stay still - its past noon now so I'll check it."  
Moana hissed in pain as Maui unwound the leaves.  
"It looks fine, it's healing up at the edges. You'll be okay!" Maui laughed, then straightened his face as Moana scowled.  
"I can't sail now. We're stuck here for another few days until my foot starts healing. Mom is going to be really mad for this - I promised her I'd be fine." Moana's eyes filled with tears.  
"Hey, hey. Your mom won't be mad, it isn't your fault."  
"I know, but still." Moana chewed her lip to get rid of the tears.  
"If I fly home and tell your mom that you're injured but not too badly, play it down a bit, say there was a storm but it didn't wreck the boat, will you promise not to sail out and get yourself killed?" Maui asked her.  
Moana considered for a moment. "I won't, but you'll have to leave me with food and water and blankets. I can't move much."  
"Deal. I'll get some more of each when I go."  
"Do you know where we are?"  
"Well, Curly, as you know, I happen to be an expert wayfinder. While you were snoring away I tracked where we were."  
"Okay." Moana hesitated. "Don't get yourself killed."  
"I'm a demigod, Curly. I'd have to be pretty damn stupid to die."  
"My point stands." Moana returned. Maui raised an eyebrow and gathered up some coconut shells.  
"I'll get some fruit and fish for you, then, and I'll leave all of the blankets but one. It should take me a full day of flying to get there, I might stay the night to rest and gather some stuff and then I'll be back."  
"Two or three days?" Moana whined.  
"Maybe you could spend the time warming yourself up for when I return," Maui smirked, then disappeared from the mouth of the cave.  
Half an hour later, after saying goodbye to Moana, Maui transformed into a hawk and took flight. Gods, that felt good. He hadn't done it in days - but that didn't compare at all to the thousand years he'd had without it. He'd spent his time jerking off, washing his hair, and counting days on those stupid rocks.  
Night fell as Maui flew, and he went back through the storm that had washed Moana and him up on the beach, though it was much more tame and he had no trouble flying through it in a few minutes. Dawn broke several hours later, and Maui had begun to tire when he saw a now-familiar green peak brush the horizon and rise like a pillar from the clear waves.  
After a hurried explanation to Sina and Tui, Maui then had to deal with their questions.  
"Where is she?"  
"Is she okay?"  
"Will her foot heal?"  
"Is she going to be able to walk?"  
"Can she sail home?"  
"Are you still okay to fly?"  
"Moana should be fine eventually, it will take time but she'll be back to normal. I'm fine, thank you, Sina, but I'm tired and I'm hungry. I have to fly back to Moana tomorrow morning."  
Maui slept fitfully, worried about Moana. The second dawn broke he set flight. He had baskets of fruit and coconut water bundled in a sack, weighing him down, and it took him to about five hours flight from Moana before he landed on a small island and crashed out, exhausted with the weight and the nerves. 

Back on Moana's temporary island, Moana was gingerly attempting to stand, her foot throbbing but bearable. It had stopped bleeding fully now and she needed to clean the wound before it healed over, and Maui still wasn't back.  
Moana hissed in pain as she put weight on her foot and fell backwards onto the sand.  
"Maui, where the hell are you?" She asked angrily. "I need to wash my foot you idiot, where the hell are you?"

Maui woke up in the middle of the night, just as the moon reached its peak, his muscles aching and his hook discarded by his side. Picking up a coconut from the basket, Maui swallowed the water inside and ignored the gnawing hunger in his stomach, hoping it would be temporarily pacified. He jumped up with a hoarse cry and transformed, picking the basket up in his talons and pumping his wings until he was high enough to cruise for a while.  
As the stars began to sink, Maui recognised the island on the horizon. He was on an island that he'd passed before the storm on the way home, meaning that the storm had gone. If Moana could walk, it would be brilliant to get her home, but if not, he could always deposit her in the canoe's cubby hole and sail alone. 

Moana heard a screaming cry and woke up suddenly, her foot sore but better. A long list of options ran through her head - was it Maui returning, Te Ka rising again or just a bird.  
"Hey, Curly."  
Maui!  
Moana stumbled to her feet and hobbled towards Maui as he jogged towards her, hook in one hand and fruit in the other.  
"Maui look, I'm walking!" Moana exclaimed. "I'm almost healed now!"  
"Let me look." In a fluid motion Maui picked Moana up, kissed her and then dumped her in the sand, then started to unwind the bandage.  
"Yeah, you're healing up. You think you're ready to sail back?" Maui suggested.  
"Yes, yes!" Moana almost jumped up, but Maui held her down, laughing, so he could rewind her bandage.  
"Let me do some sleeping, and we'll set off tonight. Take your pick of the fruit, I don't mind, but leave a coconut, I like them."  
Moana tossed a couple of coconuts his way and dived into a banana. They both slept for a while, and when the sun started to sink slowly beneath the horizon they gathered the fruit and pushed the boat into the horizon.  
"Look, I'll steer, you fly ahead and check there aren't any storms." Moana called up the mast to Maui.  
"No, Curly, I'm not falling for that. You'll take over the boat and I can't let you, not while your foot is still healing. You have to be quick. You can sit and steer, but I'm staying here to stay with the ropes and help you."  
"Okay then..." Moana sighed, but smiled after a second and beckoned for Maui to come closer. "Closer! Closer! Closer!"  
"What are you doing to do, Curly?"  
"Nothing!" Moana protested, then swiped a water-drenched hand down Maui’s face.  
“What was that for?” Maui whined, wiping his face with a huge hand. “I’d throw you off if you weren’t injured!”  
Moana smiled sweetly. “I love you.”  
“Love you too, but you drive me berserk,” Maui grumbled.  
It’s crazy, how he feels about her, but he can’t help it. She’s his, and as she smiles at him, eyes shining, from the back of the boat, he doesn’t ever want this to change. It scares him, before Moana he’d only ever thought about settling down with Hiiki; but he finds that he wants to. Children? Let’s take it easy, but he’s coming round to the idea of it. Motu Nui has ocean, clear sky, and Moana.  
He could do it, if he needed to.


	7. You May Hear A Voice Inside - Hilinga-mea'a - October 27th to November 2nd

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Moana’s parents want Maui and Moana to marry, but Maui isn’t so sure. Maui gets a visit from Tala, and goes to see Moana again, prompting a rather different night from usual.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the late updates, you’ll know why from previous ones! Slightly shorter one, this is mainly more of a filler chapter. 
> 
> Gracie xx

“Maui. Maui, wake up.” Moana shook Maui repeatedly.  
“I don’t want to.”  
“You lazy oaf. Get up.”  
“Why do you need me to get up? It’s still dark!” Maui groaned.  
“My parents want to speak with us.”  
At that Maui shot up. “Your parents?!”  
Moana nodded grimly. “Quick. We need to be there before dawn.”

Moana and Maui reached Tui and Sina’s hut as the sun pierced the horizon.  
“Daughter. Maui.” Tui greeted the two. “You know by now why you are here, Maui?”  
Maui shook his head silently.  
“We have decided that it is an appropriate time for you two to end formal courtship and begin the next stage of your life.”  
Maui felt his mouth dry up and before he could stop himself he answered.  
“But I don’t want to get married.”  
Tui and Sina took a step back. Beside him, Moana’s eyes filled with tears.  
“You - you don’t?”  
Maui looked at her in shock. “No, no - I didn’t mean that, I meant I don’t want to get married just yet, it’s all a bit soon, I think - I think - not yet, I didn’t mean ever, I just mean - for God’s sakes, Mo, I tell you everyday how much I love you!”  
Moana took a step away from him. “But not enough to marry me? Not after months of formal courtship? Am I just a girl who you hoped to win over and force to fall in love with you, just so you’d be loved again?”  
“No, Mo, you’re being dramatic -“  
With a harsh sob, Moana pushed past him and out of the hut. Tui and Sina rushed after her. 

Maui wandered around the village until almost sunset, going to the top of the tallest hill and back again. He made his way back to his hut alone. Heihei had followed him, and was gently pecking at a rock in the corner of the hut.  
“What’s up, drumstick?” Maui quipped. The chicken raised its head and regarded him with one bulging eye.  
“Well, drumstick, I fucked up.” Maui started to panic and cursed aloud.  
“I want to! I want to marry her! But I can’t help thinking about Hiiki. Not because I still love her, I don’t - but what happened with her. She’s a mortal, her children’s children will be dead by now.”  
“Why not?” Said a calm voice from behind him. “Why not yet?”  
Maui spun around. “Tala!”  
Tala took three steps into the room and regarded him with a cool gaze. Heihei attempted to peck her foot and Maui almost laughed at his face of surprise.  
“Why. Not. Yet?” Tala asked again.  
“Because of Hiiki.”  
“Hiiki? There has not been anyone named Hiiki on this island for over a thousand years. Hiiki is a name native -“  
“This island?” Maui looked up in shock. “No, not on this island - on another island, not far from here -“  
“Hiiki is a name native to this island.” Tala repeated.  
“How do you know?” Maui challenged.  
Tala smiled slyly. “A stingray travels.”  
Maui huffed.  
“Hiiki Makafiiti?”  
Maui looked up.  
“Hiiki Makafiiti. A girl famed in our stories as being the one who fell in love with the great demigod Maui. We sent him away, because he was unable to complete the wish to take the heart of Te Fiti. Then he did. And then the world began to die and he was hated by all but Hiiki Makafiiti, the peasant girl who died alone because of the hatred imposed on her lover.”  
Maui had his eyes closed.  
“Are you still in love with her? Is that why? Do you not love Moana as much as you love Hiiki?”  
“No!” Maui interjected. “I love Moana more than anything. I haven’t loved Hiiki in a thousand years.”  
“Well then why is Hiiki influencing this decision?” Tala’s voice remained calm.  
“Because it’s the same situation! She’s a mortal, she will age, she will weaken, she will die... and she will need children, and those children will age and weaken and die and so will their children. And I will watch them die until no one knows that I am even related to them.”  
“Why did you tell Moana not yet?”  
“Because I didn’t want to tell her the truth.” Maui put his head into his hands, breaking eye contact with Tala for the first time since he had opened his eyes again.  
Tala broke the silence with a bark of laughter. “No need to be ashamed of that. If I had a coconut for every time I’d told Moana’s grandfather a lie, then the island wouldn’t have run out of food just before Te Fiti’s revival.”  
Maui gave a wry smile. “What do I do?”  
“You can’t help it. If you want to marry Moana, then do it.”  
“I know. I want to. But I can’t - she hates me.”  
“She doesn’t hate you. She’s sad, and angry, and confused. Go to her, beg her forgiveness, marry her.”  
Maui nodded, determined.  
“Go, Maui. Go. Go and marry my granddaughter. Enter my family.”  
Maui pushed his hands into his eyes and stood up. When he looked around, Tala was gone.  
“Go.” He repeated. He stood up and marched out of the hut. 

Moana was sat on her bed in her hut, her parents either side of her as she sobbed.  
“Moana?”  
Moana looked up, eyes red. “Go away! I don’t want to talk to you.”  
“I think you need to.” Tui and Sina said calmly as they glared at Maui. “You need to decide what to do.”  
Tui and Sina kissed Moana and left them alone. Tui gave Maui an especially threatening look as they pushed past. Maui pushed a thumb into his cheek out of nerves and sat beside Moana, who rolled away from him and let out a sob.  
“Moana, marry me.”  
The sobs stopped.  
“Moana, I’m serious. Will you marry me?”  
Moana rolled over. “I thought you hated the idea.”  
“I don’t. I don’t. I’m so sorry.”  
“Why did you say that, then?” Moana replied bitterly. “Why would you?”  
“I... I... okay.” Maui repositioned himself. “You want to know?”  
“No, of course I don’t want to know, you big oaf.” Maui could hear the sarcasm dripping from the words.  
And there it goes. The words poured from Maui’s mouth; about Hiiki, about retaining his immortality because he was scared, about everything.  
When he’s finished, Moana sat quietly.  
“Do you still want to get married, despite all of that?” Maui tried.  
“Of course, Maui. I love you. But do you want to?”  
“Yes. Undeniably so. I wouldn’t want it any other way.” Maui pushed his hands into his eyes. “I don’t want to lose you.”  
Moana looked up at him and smiled. “You won’t lose me.”  
“Mo, you are the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen. You don’t compare to Hiiki. You don’t know how I see you; not just as a person who I want to sleep with, but someone who I want to spend time with. I want to take you behind a waterfall or into a cave and talk to you where we can talk freely and you don’t have to act like a future chief.” Maui gave a sly smile. “Although I’d love to fuck you there too.”  
Moana moved closer to him on the bed. “I’m not doing anything tonight, or until tomorrow afternoon. Why don’t we?”  
“Why don’t we what?” Maui raised an eyebrow inquisitively.  
“You, pick up those two blankets. I’ll take the mat. I’m taking you on a hike.”  
“A hiiiiiiiike?” Maui whined. “Whyyyyyy?”  
“You’re taking me behind a waterfall.” Moana gave him a smile that bordered on sultry and beckoned him out of the hut. 

By the time they had reached the waterfall it was dark. Maui had been following Moana as she pulled him through the village and up a hill. Moana dodged behind a splash of water. Despite the cool spray, the cavern behind it was warm. Maui looked around at the little cave. The walls and stone floor were covered in a water-like pattern; Moana must have decorated this room like the ocean. A few mats were laid in the corner, and an opening in the wall of the cave leading to the outside waterfall.  
Moana noticed Maui looking around and explained. “When he was a kid my dad found this little cave. He used to play in it but outgrew it. I come here now. I asked Mum and Gramma to weave these fabrics for me.”  
“Why here? Why not your little hut?”  
Moana shifted awkwardly and blushed. “Well I haven’t since you’ve been here, but before you got back, I - I - I used to come here to use my hand on myself.”  
Maui felt himself growing slightly at the thought of Moana lying on those mats, touching herself to the sounds of the water. He relished the thought.  
“Show me how.”  
“How I - “ Moana’s eyes widened and her cheeks flashed red. “Um, okay.” She felt a quick pang of anticipation mixed with arousal. “Are you just going to watch?”  
“I might join in.” Maui pushed the blankets towards Moana. She arranged them underneath herself and settled down, untying her clothes and tossing them to one side in a careful, practiced motion. She seemed shyer than usual, as though there was the whole village watching. But once she started the gentle strokes leading between her legs she lost any inhibition and spread her legs further apart. Maui sank onto a mat beside her and noted the motions she made, and the ones she seemed to like most. But he was soon too aroused himself to continue and instead stripped himself down too.  
Moana opened her eyes to see him cross-legged next to her, stroking himself as well. Her breaths were now quick gasps, her legs shaking, but it wasn’t the same.  
“Maui, fuck me. I need something else.”  
Maui didn’t think twice. Kneeling between her knees he turned her the other way up and held onto her waist with one hand, the other hand bracing himself on the wall behind him. He pushed into her, and heard Moana’s heavy breaths change. She came almost instantly, and then twice more before Maui does himself, groaning as he pumps his hand up and down his cock, covering her firm buttocks in his cum.  
They rolled over onto the mats, hot and breathless, their minds slowing down. They laid there long enough for the cum on Moana’s flesh to dry.  
“I’m going to wash in the waterfall.” Moana murmured to Maui. “Your fault.”  
“Hey!” Maui said indignantly. “Do you want to get pregnant, Curly?”  
Moana acknowledged him begrudgingly and pushed herself up. “I have no idea what you’re doing to me, Maui, but I think I love you more than ever.”  
Maui felt a warm pressure in his chest. “Come back here.” He growled, and pulled Moana down for a kiss. Moana straddled his stomach and kissed him back, repeating the night until almost dawn.


End file.
